Toxic Heavy Metals

It’s no secret that certain heavy metals are toxic. We all know to be careful of lead paint when renovating older homes, and we all learned at a certain point to switch over to mercury-free thermometers. What’s less well-known—and in some cases, a complete secret—is that toxic heavy metals are behind some of the most widespread health issues today: ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s, infertility, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, Parkinson’s, depression, anxiety, cancers, seizures, and more. These metals are also fuel for the viral-related illnesses you’re going to read about next.

Plus, we risk exposure in everyday contexts of which we might be unaware. Lead, mercury, copper, cadmium, nickel, arsenic, and aluminum can all build up in the body to create or contribute to illness. Wien was the last time you used aluminum foil, or ate out of an aluminum takeout container? Or perhaps you live in a house with copper pipes. Or you regularly walk through a park treated with pesticides (which often contain toxic heavy metals). Potential exposure is everywhere, and sometimes unavoidable. It’s even falling out of the sky in vapors.

In some cases, the heavy metals in our cells have nothing to do with exposure in our lifetime. Mercuiy, the most corrupting of the toxic heavy metals, can easily stick around in a bloodline for millennia, passed from generation to generation, amplifying as it goes. So the mercury in a child’s cerebral midline canal that’s causing his autistic symptoms could have been mined 3,000 years ago—and could be causing more trouble now than ever before. Or, if the inherited mercury has different placement in the brain, it can cause a person’s depression instead. We’re not just up against current exposure; we’re dealing with ancient toxins.

On their own, these heavy metals are poisons. What’s worse is that they tend to oxidize, causing even more problems, such as toxic runoff that damages any tissue in its path. And toxic heavy metals aren’t just a problem in the brain. When they’re present anywhere in the body, they lower overall immunity and act as fuel for viruses and bacteria.